Coffee Cup Cost Calculator
Know the number behind the cup — what it costs to make, and what you actually keep.
Work out what a cup of coffee costs your café to make and the profit and margin on every cup — from the espresso dose and wholesale bean price, the milk, the cup and lid and a few extras. It adjusts your retail price for GST, so the profit figure is the money you really keep before wages and rent.
Estimates from ingredient costs and your retail price — a planning guide only. Gross profit still has wages, rent and overheads to cover.
How the cost and profit per cup are worked out
Ingredients first, then profit
The cost to make a cup is just the ingredients: beans (dose in grams × wholesale $/kg ÷ 1,000) + milk (ml ÷ 1,000 × $/L) + the cup and lid + sugar and other extras. Then the profit per cup is your retail price taken back to ex-GST — price ÷ 1.1, because coffee carries 10% GST in Australia — minus that cup cost. The gross margin is the profit as a percentage of the ex-GST price, and a healthy café usually runs around 65–75% on coffee. This figure is gross: it does not subtract wages, rent, power, equipment or wastage.
Worked example
A $5.50 flat white on the AU 2026 defaults — a 20 g double dose, beans at ~$30/kg, 200 ml of milk at ~$2/L, a $0.30 cup and lid and $0.05 of extras — costs about $1.35 to make ($0.60 beans + $0.40 milk + $0.30 cup + $0.05 extras). It sells for $5.50, which is $5.00 ex-GST (5.50 ÷ 1.1), so the gross profit is about $3.65 a cup — a 73% margin. At 100 cups a day that's roughly $10,950 a month in gross profit before wages and rent.
This is a gross figure, not net profit. Wages, rent, power, equipment finance, card fees and wastage all come out of that gross margin — for many cafés the net margin ends up under 10% of turnover. Use this to price and to spot cost creep, not as a bottom-line profit.
What actually goes into the cost of a cup
On a typical milk coffee the ingredient cost splits roughly evenly between beans and milk, with packaging and extras behind. These are the pieces this calculator adds up:
- Beans — ~$0.60 a cup. A 20 g double shot at $30/kg is 20 × 30 ÷ 1,000 = $0.60. Move to cheaper commodity beans (~$15–20/kg) and it drops to $0.30–$0.40; specialty single-origin (~$40–60/kg+) pushes it to $0.80–$1.20.
- Milk — ~$0.40 a cup. 200 ml at $2/L is 0.2 × 2 = $0.40. Larger or milk-heavy drinks cost more; a long black or espresso skips it entirely. Barista and specialty milks cost more per litre.
- Cup and lid — ~$0.30. Only for takeaway; a dine-in cup washed and reused is effectively $0 in materials. Compostable cups tend to cost more.
- Sugar and other — ~$0.05. Sugar, napkin, stirrer — small per cup, but flavour syrups and extra shots add up.
Add them and a standard takeaway flat white lands near $1.35. The single biggest lever is usually the bean dose and price, then milk — tightening either by a few cents a cup matters a lot across thousands of cups a month.
Pricing, GST and what a good margin looks like
Take GST out first
The price on your board includes 10% GST, which you collect for the ATO — it isn't yours. So the revenue you keep from a $5.50 coffee is $5.50 ÷ 1.1 = $5.00. Always compare your cup cost against the ex-GST price, or your margin will look better than it is.
What margin to aim for
A healthy café runs a gross margin of about 65–75% on coffee, meaning ingredients are roughly 25–35% of the ex-GST price. At $5.00 ex-GST that's a cup cost of about $1.25–$1.75. If your cost of goods creeps above ~35% of the sell price, look at the dose, the milk, your wholesale bean price, or the retail price. Remember this is gross margin — wages and rent still come out of it, and they're usually the biggest costs of all.
Volume is the real business
Per cup the profit looks large, but a café lives on volume. At $3.65 gross a cup, 100 cups a day is about $10,950 a month; 200 cups a day is about $21,900. That gross has to cover the whole operation, so small changes in either price or cost, multiplied by thousands of cups, decide whether the café is viable.
❓ Frequently asked Frequently asked questions
How much does a cup of coffee cost to make?
A standard café flat white or latte costs roughly $1.20–$1.50 in ingredients: about $0.60 of beans (a 20 g double shot at ~$30/kg wholesale), $0.40 of milk (200 ml at ~$2/L), $0.30 for the cup and lid, and a few cents of sugar and other extras. That's before wages, rent, power and equipment, which are the real costs of running a café. Espresso-only drinks are cheaper because they skip the milk; large milk-heavy drinks cost more.
How much profit is in a coffee?
On a $5.50 retail coffee the café keeps about $5.00 after GST (price ÷ 1.1), and the cup itself costs roughly $1.35 to make — so the gross profit per coffee is about $3.65, a margin near 73%. That gross profit still has to cover staff, rent, equipment and waste, so the true net profit per cup is far smaller. Volume is what makes cafés work: at 100 cups a day that $3.65 adds up to roughly $10,950 a month in gross margin before overheads.
How much do coffee beans cost per cup?
For a standard double-shot espresso using about 20 g of beans, wholesale beans at ~$30/kg work out to about $0.60 of beans per cup (20 × 30 ÷ 1000). Cheaper commodity beans at $15–$20/kg are more like $0.30–$0.40 a cup; specialty single-origin beans at $40–$60/kg or more can be $0.80–$1.20 a cup. Beans are usually the biggest single ingredient cost in a milk coffee, roughly level with the milk.
Why does coffee cost $5.50?
A $5.50 flat white isn't mostly beans — the ingredients are only about $1.35. The rest pays for the barista's time and training, rent on a busy street, the espresso machine and grinder, power, cleaning, cups, card fees, waste and the GST. Cafés typically run a 65–75% gross margin on coffee precisely because the net margin after all those overheads is thin, often under 10% of turnover. Recent price rises reflect higher green-bean, milk, wage and energy costs.
What's a good margin on coffee?
A healthy café aims for a gross margin of about 65–75% on coffee — meaning ingredients are roughly 25–35% of the ex-GST price. At $5.00 ex-GST that's a cup cost of about $1.25–$1.75. If your cost of goods creeps above ~35% of the sell price, take a look at the portion (dose or milk), the wholesale price, or the retail price. Remember gross margin isn't profit — wages, rent and overheads still come out of it.
Where these figures come from
The method here is simple cost accounting — ingredient cost per cup against the ex-GST sell price — using typical Australian café figures you can replace with your own numbers. The defaults are representative, not fixed rates.
- Cost of a cup — beans (dose g × $/kg ÷ 1,000) + milk (ml ÷ 1,000 × $/L) + cup and lid + extras.
- GST — Australia's Goods and Services Tax is 10%, so ex-GST revenue = retail price ÷ 1.1.
- Profit & margin — gross profit per cup = ex-GST price − cup cost; gross margin = profit ÷ ex-GST price. A coffee gross margin typically sits around 65–75%.
- Typical defaults — 20 g double dose, beans ~$30/kg, milk ~$2/L, cup + lid ~$0.30, extras ~$0.05, retail ~$5.50. Commodity beans run ~$15–20/kg and specialty ~$40/kg+.
Last checked: July 2026. This is a planning estimate, not accounting or business advice. Gross profit excludes wages, rent, power, equipment and wastage — your actual net profit will be much lower. Replace the defaults with your own costs and price for the most accurate result.
Select the question that matches where you are right now.
The headline number is the estimated gross profit on one cup of coffee — your ex-GST price minus the ingredient cost. The breakdown shows the cost of each ingredient, the ex-GST revenue, the margin, and the monthly gross profit at your volume.
Use it to price honestly and to spot cost creep. If the cup cost climbs — a dearer bean, a milk price rise — watch the margin move and decide whether to absorb it or adjust the price.
It's not your net profit. It ignores wages, rent, power, equipment, card fees and wastage — the overheads that take the lion's share of the gross margin. Treat it as gross margin per cup, not money in the bank.
The GST on the price isn't yours — you collect it for the ATO. Comparing your cup cost against the GST-inclusive price flatters the margin, so the tool always takes GST out first.
Four things move the profit per cup the most: the bean dose and price, the milk, your retail price, and the volume you sell.
Together these are most of the cup cost. A bigger dose or a pricier bean, and milk price rises, hit every single cup — small per-cup changes are large across a month.
The board price includes 10% GST. A 50c price rise adds about 45c to ex-GST revenue per cup — often the fastest lever, but one customers notice.
Per-cup profit is only half the story; volume is the business. And remember the gross figure still has to cover wages and rent, which don't shrink when a quiet day comes.
A few habits keep the margin honest and the café viable.
Dose drift is silent cost creep — a gram or two extra on every shot adds up fast. Weigh shots and keep the grinder dialled in.
Over-steaming and tossed milk is pure lost margin. Steam to order and track how much milk goes down the sink.
Bean, milk, wage and energy costs move. Re-run your true cup cost against your price at least once a year and adjust before the margin quietly erodes.
The cup is one line in the business. Model the wider margins, the setup cost and the tax side with these.